The Great Western Railway in Warwickshire

The history of the Great Western Railway in Warwickshire was, like the London Midland Railway, a story of competing independent railway companies which over time became the GWR. Robert Ferris traces the origins of the company from the early days of railways in the county to its last days of independence when on 31st December 1947 it became the Western Division of British Railways.

To navigate within the history of the Great Western Railway in Warwickshire click the following links.

1920’s - The Grouping

On 1st January 1923, following seven years of State Control (both during and immediately after the First World War), the Government grouped all the UK's Railways into four major Companies. The Western Group which retained the name Great Western Railway now included six previously independent Welsh Railways and their associated Dock Works plus a number of other subsidiary companies. In Warwickshire however, there was no substantial change to the Great Western Railway.

Despite a background of post war economic difficulties, confidence was high in the new group and in response to Government requests for construction work to relieve unemployment the Great Western Railway proposed several major asset replacement schemes. In Warwickshire the track was already being relaid on the Alcester Branch with a new halt constructed at Aston Cantlow (see gwrac792). This line reopened partially on 18th December 1922 and fully on 1st August 1923, but the other Warwickshire war casualty, the Henley Branch remained closed.

In 1924 the austerity timetables of the war were eventually abandoned and the opportunity taken to introduce standardised departure times from principle stations (including Birmingham Snow Hill) and to simplify rolling stock routing. The two hour non-stop Paddington to Birmingham Expresses where reintroduced and advertised as the shortest route and with them the Slip Coach services returned (but never to the pre-war numbers of the Golden Age). In 1927 there were 2 Slips daily at Leamington, both of which went forward to Stratford-upon-Avon, but improved locomotive power meant that an additional stop could be made without a great increase in the overall journey time, so by 1932 there was only 1 daily Leamington Slip.

When the Chief Mechanical Engineer Mr Churchward retired in 1922, he was replaced by his assistant Mr Collett, who continued the policies of his predecessor. The advantages of standardisation and quality engineering enabled a fast a fuel efficient locomotive stock to be developed. New designs were introduced starting with the Castle Class, which the Great Western Railway described as a ‘super locomotive’ and ‘the most powerful passenger train engine in the Kingdom’. The publicity associated with the Royal Visit to Swindon and the world’s fastest train (The Cheltenham Flyer) elevated this locomotive almost to divine status. In April 1925, a locomotive exchange was organised with the LNER and the results further enhanced the locomotives’ reputation as ‘Pendennis Castle’ No 4079 maintained scheduled times from Kings Cross with better fuel efficiency than the competing Gresley Pacific. As more Castle class locomotives were built they displaced the older Stars and Saints and could regularly be found at the head of crack Paddington to Birmingham expresses (see gwrls183).

The acquisition of the busy Welsh Railways and Docks had initially been seen as an advantage, but coal usage was in decline as industry shifted to oil and the deep pits in South Wales slowly became less profitable. Despite the quality of the coal, a series of miner strikes further decreased demand as customers found more reliable suppliers. This culminated in the ten day General Strike which started on 3rd May 1926, when the railway workers walked out in support of the miners. Efforts were made to revitalise the coal traffic by improving dock handling facilities and introducing 20 ton wagons (with a special lower tariff which reflected the siding space and tare weight savings).

Road competition was also increasing with over 20,000 surplus military vehicles being sold cheaply after the First World War. Many went to demobilised army trained drivers, who set themselves up as small haulage contractors. In 1920, the ‘Roads Act’ had introduced a tax on mechanical vehicles, which was paid into a Central Fund to pay for improvements to roads and highways and in 1925, the ‘Road Improvement Act’ introduced powers to remove obstructions from roads and to widen streets. The road administration was also centralised and roads were classified into four divisions depending upon their importance. Grants from the Central Fund were then allocated to improve roads and bridges depending upon their classification. In addition by 1926, 25% of scheduled road maintenance was also being paid for by the Central Fund. With the improved roads came the Motor Omnibus which started to provide reliable rural bus services in direct completion to the railway passenger services.

The general reduction in traffic caused concern in the Great Western Railway board room and in 1925 they initiated a comprehensive survey of 53 branch lines to identify possible economies. Two Warwickshire branches featured in the report:

The report recommended that six uneconomic branches should close completely, four others should have their passenger service withdrawn, while a further five should have services confined to 8 hours a day, so that they could be operated by one shift of men. At this time both the two Warwickshire branches were still considered viable, but by 1929 the low passenger receipts of the Shipston Branch had further decreased and a decision was made to replace the rail passenger services with a bus service and operate the line as a freight only branch. Another change was the introduction of the 48xx class 0-4-2T locomotives for branch auto-trains, these were a more efficient version of the similar 517 class locomotives that they displaced (see gwrb780).

Despite the economic situation there was an appetite for speed and in 1927, the Great Western Railway introduced the Super Castle ‘King Class’ passenger locomotives. The design had originally been proposed in 1919, but the 20.5ton axle weight exceeded the permanent way capabilities, however by 1927, bridges on the major routes had either been reinforced or replaced (see gwrwm430) or reassessed following the findings of the Bridge Stress Committee. This committee finally reported in 1928, but the Great Western Railway civil engineers had been intimately involved in much of the testing allowing them to more accurately calculate bridge capabilities. In particular, it was found that the reduced hammer-blow from a balanced four cylinder locomotive meant that a locomotive with 2.5ton more static axle load could be accommodated. The catalyst for the Kings was the introduction of the Lord Nelson class by the Southern Railway, which had a marginally higher tractive effort than the Castle Class. The first engine of the new class ‘King George V’ No 6000 was another publicity triumph, when it represented Britain on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Centenary Exhibition. Back in the UK the King Class started to haul the crack London to Birmingham two hour passenger expresses (see gwrls193).

The Bridge Stress Committee report also affected other Railways. For many years the Midland Railway had refused to allow engines larger than 4-4-0 to cross the Stonebridge Viaduct in Gloucestershire and this limited the locomotives that could be used on the Great Western Railway's Birmingham to Bristol expresses as they used running rights over the Midland's line. In 1927 the viaduct was replaced with an embankment and reassessed to carry 4-6-0 locomotives at a maximum speed of 15mph. This resulted in 4-6-0 Star and Hall class locomotives displacing the 4-4-0 locomotives on this route.

Robert Ferris